The unique optical and electrical properties of graphene have triggered great interest in its application as a transparent conducting electrode material and significant effort has been invested in achieving high conductivity while maintaining transparency. Doping of graphene has been a popular route for reducing its sheet resistance, but this has typically come at a significant cost in optical transmission. We demonstrate doping of few layers graphene with bromine as a means of enhancing the conductivity via intercalation without major optical losses. Our results demonstrate the encapsulation of bromine leads to air-stable transparent conducting electrodes with five-fold improvement of sheet resistance reaching at the cost of only 2-3% loss of optical transmission. The remarkably low tradeoff in optical transparency leads to the highest enhancements in the figure of merit reported thus far for FLG. Furthermore, we tune the workfunction by up to 0.3 eV by tuning the bromine content. These results should help pave the way for further development of graphene as a potential substitute to transparent conducting polymers and metal oxides used in optoelectronics, photovoltaics and beyond.

Theoretical and experimental studies suggest that energetic offsets between the charge transport energy levels in different morphological phases of polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunctions may improve charge separation and reduce recombination in polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this work, we use cyclic voltammetry, UV-vis absorption, and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy to characterize hole energy levels in the polymer phases of polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunctions. We observe an energetic offset of up to 150 meV between amorphous and crystalline polymer due to bandgap widening associated primarily with changes in polymer conjugation length. We also observe an energetic offset of up to 350 meV associated with polymer:fullerene intermolecular interactions. The first effect has been widely observed, but the second effect is not always considered despite being larger in magnitude for some systems. These energy level shifts may play a major role in PSC performance and must be thoroughly characterized for a complete understanding of PSC function.

The use of ultrasonic spray pyrolysis is demonstrated for the growth of polycrystalline, highly uniform indium oxide films at temperatures in the range of 200-300 °C in air using an aqueous In(NO3)3 precursor solution. Electrical characterization of as-deposited films by field-effect measurements reveals a strong dependence of the electron mobility on deposition temperature. Transistors fabricated at ∼250 °C exhibit optimum performance with maximum electron mobility values in the range of 15-20 cm2 V -1 s-1 and current on/off ratio in excess of 106. Structural and compositional analysis of as-grown films by means of X-ray diffraction, diffuse scattering, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveal that layers deposited at 250 °C are denser and contain a reduced amount of hydroxyl groups as compared to films grown at either lower or higher temperatures. Microstructural analysis of semiconducting films deposited at 250 °C by high resolution cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy reveals that as-grown layers are extremely thin (∼7 nm) and composed of laterally large (30-60 nm) highly crystalline In2O3 domains. These unique characteristics of the In2O3 films are believed to be responsible for the high electron mobilities obtained from transistors fabricated at 250 °C. Our work demonstrates the ability to grow high quality low-dimensional In2O3 films and devices via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis over large area substrates while at the same time it provides guidelines for further material and device improvements.

Metal halide perovskites have rapidly advanced thin film photovoltaic performance; as a result, the materials’ observed instabilities urgently require a solution. Using density functional theory (DFT), we show that a low energy of formation, exacerbated in the presence of humidity, explains the propensity of perovskites to decompose back into their precursors. We find, also using DFT, that intercalation of phenylethylammonium between perovskite layers introduces quantitatively appreciable van der Waals interactions; and these drive an increased formation energy and should therefore improve material stability. Here we report the reduced-dimensionality (quasi-2D) perovskite films that exhibit improved stability while retaining the high performance of conventional three-dimensional perovskites. Continuous tuning of the dimensionality, as assessed using photophysical studies, is achieved by the choice of stoichiometry in materials synthesis. We achieved the first certified hysteresis-free solar power conversion in a planar perovskite solar cell, obtaining a 15.3% certified PCE, and observe greatly improved performance longevity.

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